Showing results by narrator "Jim D Johnston" in All Categories

Africa may have given rise to the first humans, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world's first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world.

By the end of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies had managed to successfully land 170,000 men, with over 75,000 on the British and Canadian beaches, 57,000 on the American beaches, and over 24,000 airborne troops. Thanks to Allied deception, the German army had failed to react to prevent the Allies from making the most of their landings. Just one division, the Hitlerjugend, would arrive the following day. Despite a fearsome and bloody day, the majority of the Allied forces had achieved their objectives.

With both an entertainer's eye and a social scientist's rigor, Wayne Parent subjects Louisiana's politics to rational and empirical analysis, seeking and finding coherent reasons for the state's well-known unique history. He resists resorting to vague hand-waving about exoticism, while at the same time he brings to life the juicy stories that illustrate his points. Parent's main theme is that Louisiana's ethnic mix, natural resources, and geography define a culture that in turn produces its unique political theater.

In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great was on top of the world. Never a man to sit on his hands or rest upon his laurels, Alexander began planning his future campaigns, which may have included attempts to subdue the Arabian Peninsula or make another incursion into India. But fate had other plans for the young Macedonian king. One night, while feasting with his admiral Nearchus, he drank too much and took to bed with a fever.

Although revered in history for their civilization and culture, the Greeks were always in a constant state of warfare amongst themselves. With the likes of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes asserting dominance over the Ionian Peninsula, none of the other city-states could amass an army strong enough to challenge their superiority in the area, much less take on all challengers and invade Persia. However, none of these other city-states had a ruler named Alexander.

Are you tired of looking around, wondering why others are more accomplished than you are? What makes them different from you? Do you want to improve your life, become debt-free, and learn how to freelance using your skills and passions? Then this book is for you! The Hustler's Mindset will lead you precisely where you need to be and unlock that hidden inner power to become your best self.

Imagine a natural or man-made disaster occurring that totally changes the world as you now know it. What would you need to have in place in order to survive such a catastrophe? How can you prepare yourself and your loved ones now for such an event? Survival Book: Everything You Need to Know Before Disaster Strikes takes a serious look at disaster preparedness and reveals 15 tasks that you can work on today that will better prepare you for survival during and following a disaster.

Smugglers groomed him. His head was full of the legends of rebels striking back, exposed to nadaismo and priests joining the revolution. He tried college. Traffickers and illicit markets have always been there. He searched for ways to help the poor and find validation as a respectable man. He tasted success in both worlds. His dream was to become wealthy, but Pablo Escobar was born into La Violencia. Established power held the trauma of violence at their fingertips. He learned that lesson well.

After the successful amphibious invasion on D-Day in June 1944, the Allies began racing east toward Germany and liberating France along the way. The Allies had landed along a 50 mile stretch of French coast, and despite suffering 8,000 casualties on D-Day, over 100,000 still began the march across the western portion of the continent. By the end of August 1944, the German Army in France was shattered, with 200,000 killed or wounded and a further 200,000 captured.

Most scientists believe that mankind was originally spawned in the salty waters of the seas, and that over millennia creatures managed to evolve into today's primates. If this is so, the oceans have made it abundantly clear that have no desire to take their offspring safely back; from the time of the earliest sailing ships, there have been countless accidents and tragedies where numerous lives were quickly lost.

This book is an elaborate explanation of MacArthur's life. It is written in an easy-to-follow style that makes you move with the flow of the events of the day. In the book, you will learn almost everything you ever wanted to know about the most decorated army general the US ever had. In particular, you are going to see the factors that influenced MacArthur's life, and the background against which he developed his career.

Andrew Klein's book pulls no punches, defends Hoffa, and destroys the perverse and pervasive influence of the Kennedy clan. This book presents a flawed and tragic charismatic hero in Hoffa, a powerful and bullying classic villain in Robert Kennedy, and a lush backdrop of union fights, personal betrayal, and presidential assassinations.

Liberty was not a privilege afforded to a few. It was to be extended to build a life worth living. Calamitous unrestrained 1920s big business and culture heaped intolerable conditions on the shoulders of unseen millions in the land of the free. Politics before, during, and after the Great Depression tested his character, resolve, and faith in acting for the sake of a common humanity.

The Olympics have long been the center of attention in the sports world, but perhaps no moment in the history of the games was as poignant as Jesse Owens' performance in Berlin in 1936. Owens would finish his career with four gold medals and become known as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history" (as his obituary in The New York Times put it), but nearly 80 years later, it's the context that has made his performance so memorable.

Sherlock Holmes is one of those iconic characters who have become so embedded in our culture that he transcends space and time. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the currently popular series, Sherlock, have tried to kill off the famous character. So what is it about this colorful, egocentric, brilliant, conceited man that engages the imagination? Sherlock Holmes: Bird Dragging a Broken Wing explores one possible reason why Holmes can be "killed" over and over and still survive - along with his arch nemesis, Moriarty - to become the subject of yet another story.

From as early as the third century BCE, the Romans were prodigious monument builders, so much so that the memory of the great Roman Republic and the Roman Empire continues to exist within a cityscape of stone. Rome's public spaces were filled with statues, arches, temples, and many other varieties of monumental images, and each of these structures had its own civic or religious function.

The sudden rise and fall of Great Britain should not have come as a surprise to those few persons who study the increase and fall of empires, and they are acquainted with the lands which, in every single case, have caused their dissolution. No writer who controls a heart can, however, afford to go through the fall of Britain merely with all the eye with the moralist or perhaps the calm historian. I would, therefore, remind my listeners of the wealth which the British Empire enjoyed in her quest to conquer the world.

A series of mountain chains frame the Levantine coast, growing in height as they approach modern-day Lebanon. These provided a natural defense along the important coast, and the few passes through these mountain ranges were the focal points of movement and communication. For this reason, these locations were where many crusader castles were erected.

Joseph Stalin rose from humble roots to become the greatest madman of the 20th century. His disregard for human life dwarfs Hitler's, as does the scale of his crimes. This book by author Andrew Klein exposes "Uncle Joe" as the perpetrator of mass killings, mass incarcerations, and mass starvations across four decades. This book spares no detail and minces no words about the evil deeds of one of history's most brazen tyrants.

The Canaanites and Nubians received the most attention as Egypt's enemies and occasional trading partners, but it was the Libyans - the final third of Egypt's traditional enemies - who influenced later Egyptian culture most. The Ancient Libyans: The Mysterious History of Egypt's Neighbors to the West During Antiquity looks at the various groups and their impact on the region and subsequent cultures. You will learn about the ancient Libyans like never before.